'NCIS' Recap: Bishop is haunted by an old case from her past

This "Déjá Vu" episode of "NCIS" starts with a dead sailor in a landfill. Fingerprints identify the victim as Seaman Alessandra Ramos, who was stationed aboard the USS Barkley in Norfolk. Her death was caused by a single gunshot wound to the head.

While the NCIS team is processing the scene, DC Metro Police Detective Jeff Katz shows up. Gibbs asks why he is outside his jurisdiction. Katz says that Ramos was supposed to testify before a grand jury in a murder case the following week. Ramos had called the tip line and said she had information about a gang shooting in Columbia Heights. She wanted to do the right thing.

Bishop and DiNozzo go to Norfolk, where Ramos' bunkmate tells them that Ramos went to a D.C. club to see a band called Sterile Puppets. She had planned to stay overnight at a motel and come back in the morning. When Bishop and DiNozzo check, they find Ramos never made it to the motel.

Bishop writes a letter to President Truman because there is really no one she can confide in and she needs to communicate her thoughts. She says this current case makes her reconsider her reasons for becoming a federal agent. Ramos was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, and she wanted to serve. It doesn't seem right that she is dead.

Gibbs brings in Rueben, the murder suspect that Ramos was going to testify against, who denies any knowledge of her death. He convinces both Gibbs and Katz of his innocence, so they are back to square one.

Abby finds blonde hair inside Ramos' jacket, as if someone else was wearing it. She runs the DNA and it matches 19-year-old Waverly University student Jane Murphy. Gibbs and McGee go to the university to talk to Jane, but she is missing. Jane's father is there, too. He says that Jane missed their regular Sunday phone call, so he drove down to see what was wrong.

McGee tries to track Jane's credit card. Other than the strand of hair, there is nothing to connect the two women – until McGee finds a charge for admission to the lounge where the Sterile Puppets were playing. Then Palmer finds something on Ramos' body. What Ducky thought was a rodent bite turned out to be a shallow gouge with a sharp instrument. What was removed was a tiny micro fragment. Palmer takes it to Abby.

DiNozzo and McGee head to the club. They show pictures of Ramos and Murphy to the owner, who says it is a good bet they were there. He has security cameras, but the wires camera's watching the club's back door were cut on Thursday night. McGee finds footage of the girls going in the front, but never leaving, which means they left through the back.

The chip that Palmer found turns out to be a GPS tracker. Bishop asks if it was under Ramos' left armpit. When Palmer says yes, Bishop says she knew there was more to Ramos' death than it first seemed. She explains that she was part of a joint task force on human trafficking called Operation Concubine. Girls were abducted, had chips implanted, and were sold to the highest bidders all over the world.

Bishop meets with FBI Special Agent Daisy Milner and retired NSA Agent Adam Connors, who worked with her on Operation Concubine, and seemingly shut the trafficking operation down. Bishop asks them to come back to NCIS and compare notes. Connors declines, but Daisy agrees. Daisy checks and finds there are six missing coeds in addition to Ramos and Murphy.

Abby finds a serial number on the GPS tracker that sends DiNozzo and McGee to Daly Tech Industries, where they meet Tiffany. She looks up the batch number. It was shipped to a P.O. Box for Vander-Husen Industries, a dummy corporation.

Bishop gets a call from Daisy, who has a lead from the money trail. But when Bishop and Gibbs show up at the meet, Daisy has been killed. Connors is there and he hands Bishop the report Daisy wanted, then says he is out on the investigation. It turns out that the bullet that killed Daisy came from the same gun as the one that killed Ramos.

Abby and McGee trace the other GPS trackers that were in the batch shipped to Vander-Husen. Three of the trackers are at a cargo terminal at Virginia Port Authority. The team finds three of the girls, including Jane Murphy, who tells them what little she knows.

Bishop goes to see Connors to tell him that they just rescued three girls. A nervous Connors refuses Bishop's request for help, saying she already has his report. She tells him she knows the report has been altered. It is a smokescreen. Bishop asks Connors how much he was paid to get the trafficking operation up and running again, and then pulls a gun on him. He goes for his gun but Gibbs and DiNozzo arrive as backup and Connors gets shot – but not killed.

McGee tells Bishop they have Connors' computer so they will be able to take down the whole operation. With power out all over D.C. due to the cold weater, DiNozzo, Bishop, and McGee all end up at Gibbs' house because he is the only one who has a wood-burning fireplace that produces heat.